


4 

SHORT ANSWERS 



so 



16 



RECKLESS FABRICATIONS: 



AGAINST THE 



emocratu CaittukU for Iflnsibtnt, 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
WILLIAM RICE, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, 

Pbxxsylvanian Building. 46 S. Third Stbeet, 

1856. 



SHORT ANSWERS TO RECKLESS FABRICATIONS. 



THE "DROP OF BLOOD" FALSEHOOD. 

It must be a desperate calumny that Horace Greeley will not circulate 
against a political opponent. In his New York Tribune, of the 7th of 
June, 1850, he refuses to endorse the story, that Mr. Buchanan had once 
declared, that " if he had a drop of Democratic blood in his body, he 
would open his veins and let it out." Mr. Greeley says : 

" There has long been a story current that, in his old Federal days, 
Mr. Buchanan once declared, that ' if he supposed he had a drop of 
Democratic blood in his veins, he would open them and let it out.' 
We do not think any one who knew Mr. Buchanan, can have ever 
credited this tale. There is not a man living more unlikely to make 
rash, silly speeches, than he is." 

It is scarcely necessary to add refutation to this amende honorable; 
but as the accusation, contemptible as it is, may require some new 
authoritative contradiction, we give Mr. Buchanan's own words, in a let- 
ter to the Philadelphia Courier and Enquirer, introduced by the editor 
of the Harrisburg Reporter : 

[From the Washington Union.] 

THE "DROP OF BLOOD" CALUMNY. 

We published yesterday the emphatic denunciation by the Lancaster 
Intelligencer, of the base calumny which attributed to Mr. Buchanan the 
declaration, that " if he had a drop of Democratic blood in his veins, he 
would let it out." It seems now that this falsehood originated in 1828, 
when Mr. Buchanan was a candidate for Congress as a Jackson Demo- 
crat. The charge was revived a few years afterwards, when Mr. Bu- 
chanan came forward with the characteristic straightforwardess and frank- 
ness of his nature, and denounced it as an unmitigated calumny. We 
copy from the Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Rejwrter, the letter of Mr. 



Buehanan, with the single remark that, with such a refutation as we now 
present, no one can repeat the slander without knowingly giving cur- 
rency t<j a falsehood : 

[From the Harrisburg (Pa.) Reporter.] 

We observe by the report of Congressional proceedings, in the 

onal Intelligence)', of March 30th, that on the previous Friday 
evening, oar Senator Buchanan was assailed by Mr. Morgan, of New 
York, and Mr. Cooper, of Pennsylvania, upon the floor of the House of 
Representatives, with the charge of once having said, in a 4th of July 
oration, " that if he thought he had one drop of Democratic blood in his 
veins, he would let it out." This charge was promptly contradicted by 

rs. Ramsey and General Keim, of the Pennsylvania delegation. 
It is notour intention, at present, to make any comments upon this 
ridiculous story, which first originated in 1828, immediately preceding- 
Mr. Buchanan's fifth election to Congress, but merely to re-publish the 
letter of that gentleman to the editor af the Pennsylvania Inquirer and 
Courier, dated February 27, 1838, contradicting the charge so explicitly 
and (©equivocally, as to silence the slander, it was supposed, forever. 
This letter was elicited by a similar charge, made in debate by Mr. Cox, 
a member of the Convention for amending the Constitution of Pennsyl- 
vania, in May, 1837. It was then promptly repelled, before the Conven- 
tion, by the present Judge Porter and Kmanuel C. Reigart, both mem- 
bers of that body — the first a prominent Democrat, and the latter one of 
the anti-Masonic party in Pennsylvania. Had this sentiment, or any- 
thing like it, ever been uttered by Mr. Buchanan at a "political meeting 
in the court-house in Lancaster," these two gentlemen, from their posi- 
tion and character, must either have heard it themselves, or immediately 
heard it from others; both of them being residents of that city when it 

alleged to have been uttered, and Mr. Reigart, residing there ever 
The charge would have specially attracted public attention at 
that time, as Mr. Buchanan was a successful candidate for the State 
Legislature both in October, 1814, and October, 1815. 

Mr. ('•>:■., i oi satisfied with the contradiction of Mr. Porter and Mr. 
Reigart, endeavored to obtain proof of the charge, and renewed, in a 
letter to the editor of the Pennsylvania Inquirer,, and Courier, dated 
February 2 !, and published in that paper of February 26, 1838, the tes- 

my which he then adduced in support of it, and all which could be 
collected after a laborious' search, consists of the certificate of a certain 
Anthony MM rliun, and an extract of a letter from George Ford, Jr., both 
of which, it will be, perc< ived, are referred to in the following letter of 
Mr. Buchanan : 

To ilf Editor oftkt Pennsylvania Inquirer and Cov/riev : 

Washington City, February 27, 1888. 

Sib : 1 have this moment perused the letter of J. F. Cox, published 

,i yesterday's Inquirer. Hi late official station, as a member of the 

Convention, in the stale slander which he again repeats-, 

and which / i mncc to h utterly and absolutely false, no rnattqr 



from what source it may have proceeded or shall proceed. I never did, 
upon any occasion, public or private, whether at the court-house in Lan- 
caster, or elsewhere, declare that " if I knew I had a drop of Democratic 
blood in my veins, I would let it out," or any words to that effect. Tfm 
ridiculous story is without the shadow of foundation. 

The first version of the story was, that I had used the expression in 
an oration which I had delivered at the court-house in Lancaster, on the 
4th of July, 1825. The oration itself disproved this assertion ; and then, 
after Mr. Cox had made it a subject of debate before the Keform Con- 
vention, in May last, one of the papers at Harrisburg solemnly announced 
that the expression had been used by me on the floor of the House of 
Representatives, in this city, in reply to Gov. Floyd, of Virginia, and 
' that it could be proved by a gentleman who had formerly been a Demo- 
cratic representative in Congress from Pennsylvania. The scene is now 
again shifted to the court-house in Lancaster, and a certain Anthony 
M'Glinn is the witness. He states, that "a number of years ago, one 
evening," whilst I was addressing a political meeting there assembled, he 
had heard me use the expression already stated, " in an emphatic manner, 
with my right hand elevated above my head." He does not state the 
year when this expression was used, nor the name of any other person 
who was present at this public meeting. 

It does not seem to have occurred to Mr. Cox, that if I had uttered 
such a sentiment as that attributed to me in the court-house at Lancaster, 
it would have been heard by hundreds of people ; that it would imme- 
diately have become the subject of universal remark and universal condem- 
nation, and that it would have been severely and justly commented upon in 
the newspapers of the day. Had it been true, there would have been no 
occasion to resort to Anthony M'Glinn to prove the charge, nor to a 
conversation alleged by Mr. Ford to have been held with Peter Shindle, 
who, although a respectable, is an aged man ; and from a defect of memory, 
incident to that period of life, must have confounded what may have been 
stated to him by others with what he had heard himself. But, I repeat 
again, no matter who has been or shall be the witness, the tale is utterly 
and absolutely false. 

Shortly after, the slander was made a subject of debate by Mr. Cox in 
the Reformed Convention ; a number of the oldest and most respectable 
citizens of Lancaster, without distinction of party, signed a certificate 
disproving the charge, so far as it was possible for a negative to be proved, 
which was placed and still remains in the hands of one of my friends. After 
what had been said in reply to Mr. Cox by Mr. Porter and Mr. Reigart — 
who must either have hoard the expression had it been used, or heard it 
immediately after — I deemed it wholly unnecessary then to publish this 
certificate. Yours, very respectfully, 

James Buchanan. 

We have said, in the commencement of this article, that we would at 
this time publish nothing in refutation of this charge but Mr. Buchanan's 
own letter. We have, however, procured a copy of the certificate to 
which Mr. B. refers, and give it publicity below for the first time. In 



6 

doing so, we will boldly assert, that the thirty subscribers to it are gentle- 
men of as much moral worth and respectability as can be found among 
the same number of individuals in any other community in the Union ; 
and we venture to say, that no respectable man in Pennsylvania, 
OP ANY political party, after reading Mr. B's contradiction, endorsed 
by the cool and deliberate declaration of these gentlemen, will reiterate 
the charge, believing himself in its truth : 

CERTIFICATE. 

Several of the undersigned have known Mr. Buchanan ever since he 
first came to Lancaster to study law with the late James Hopkins, and 
the others for many years past. We are all convinced that, if at a public 
meeting at the court-house, or anywhere else in this city, he had ever 
used such an expression, or anything like it, as that which has been attri- 
buted to him by Mr. Cox in the Convention, to wit : " that he thanked 
his God he had not a drop of Democratic blood in his veins, and if he 
had, he would let it out/' some of us would have heard it, and all of us 
would have heard of it, and it must have become a subject of general con- 
versation throughout Lancaster. To the best of our knowledge, it never 
was mentioned by any person until the year 1828, immediately before 
Mr. Buchanan's last election to Congress on the Democratic Jackson 
ticket. As this election immediately preceded General Jackson's first 
election to the Presidency, (in November, 1828,) and as Mr. Buchanan 
had been for several years previously his ardent and active, supporter, he 
was then opposed with much zeal and bitterness. 

Ever since we first heard this story, referring back as it did to 1815, 
we have always believed, and still believe, that it was got up without 
any foundation in fact, for the purpose of operating against Mr. Buchan- 
an's election to Congress in 1828. Indeed, we had never supposed 
that any person acquainted with his character could believe that at any 
period of life he would bave made such a declaration as now seems to 
be Seriously imputed to him. 

Wm. Jenkins, Jas. Humes, 

Wm. B. Fordney, Geo. H. Krug, 

Reab Frazer, Wm. Cooper, 

F. A. Muhlenberg, John N. Lane, 

John Mathiot, John Reynolds, 

William Norris, John R. Montgomery, 

Jobn Christ, Henry Rogers, 

George Musser, Jacob Demuth, 

William Frick, Christian Bachman, 

Samuel Dale, John Bomberger, 

Joseph Ogilby, John Ross, 

John F. Steinman, John Evans, 

Emanuel C. Reigart, John Miller, 

Adam Reigart, Henry Keffer, 

Benjamin Champneys, Georgo Messenkop. 



The Harrisburg Reporter referred to, is not now published ; but at the 
time the editorial above copied was written and printed, it was the De- 
mocratic State paper of Pennsylvania. The Mr. Cox, who made the 
charge against Mr. Buchanan, has been dead for some years; but before 
he died, he became a Democrat, and fully and repeatedly atoned for the 
wrong he did to Mr. Buchanan. Indeed, he became one of Mr. Bu- 
chanan's best friends. Of the signers to the card above quoted, a num- 
ber have died. There were Democrats and Whigs on this list. Among 
those still living is Hon. E. C. Reigart, who was opposed to the Democracy 
in 1838, even while defending Mr. Buchanan against this aspersion. 
He is a distinguished politician and lawyer. He is now Mr. Buchan- 
an's decided advocate for the Presidency. 



FABRICATION NO. II. 

MR. BUCHANAN AND THE WAR OF 1812. 
Some of the opposition papers are re-publishing an oration alleged to 
have been delivered by Mr. Buchanan on the 4th of July, 1815 ; and he 
is falsely accused of having opposed the vigorous prosecution of the war 
of 1812. In 1847, after he was appointed Secretary of State by Mr. 
Polk, a similar charge was made against him in Tennessee, of which he 
was informed by Hon. George W. Jones, a leading member of the pre- 
sent Congress from that State. Mr. Buchanan replied by the following 
letter, which so clearly covers the whole ground, that all necessity for 
further comment is precluded : 

Washington, April 23, 1847. 

My Dear Sir : — I have this moment received your letter of the 15th 
inst., and hasten to return an answer. 

In one respect I have been fortunate as a public man. My political 
enemies are obliged to go back for more than thirty years to find plausi- 
ble charges against me. 

In 1814, when a very young man, (being this day 56 years of age,) I 
made my first public speech before a meeting of my fellow-citizens of Lan- 
caster. The object of this speech was to urge upon them the duty of 
volunteering their services in defence of their invaded country. A vol- 
unteer company was raised upon the spot, in which I was the first, -I 
believe, to enter my name as a private. We forthwith proceeded to Bal- 
timore, and served until we were honorably discharged. 

In October, 1814, I was elected a member of the Pennsylvania Legis- 



lature; and in that body gave my support to every measure calculated, 
in my opinion, to aid the country against the common enemy. 

In 1815, after peace had been concluded, I did express opinions in 
relation to the causes and conduct of the war, which I very soon after 
regretted and recalled. Since that period I have been ten years a mem- 
ber of the House of Representatives, and an equal time of the Senate, 
acting a part on every great question. My political enemies, finding 
nothing assailable throughout this long public career, now resort to my 
youthful years for expressions to injure my political character. The 
brave and generous citizens of Tennessee, to whatever party they may 
belong, will Agree that this is a hard measure of justice, and it is still 
harder that, for this reason, they should condemn the President for hav- 
ing voluntarily offered me a seat in his Cabinet. 

I never deemed it proper, at any period of my life, whilst the country 
was actually engaged in war with a foreign enemy, to utter a sentiment 
which could interfere with its successful prosecution. Whilst the war 
with Great Britain was raging, I should have deemed it little better than 
moral treason to paralyze the arm of the Government whilst dealing 
blows against the enemy. After peace was concluded, the case was then 
different. My enemies cannot point to an expression uttered by me 
during the continuance of the war, which was not favorable to its vigor- 
ous prosecution. 

From your friend, very respectfully, 

JAMES BUCHANAN. 

Hon. George W. Jones. 



FORMER OPPONENTS AND PRESENT OPPONENTS PAY- 
ING TRIBUTE TO MR. BUCHANAN'S INTEGRITY, AND 
REFUTING ATTACKS UPON HIS CHARACTER. 

This pamphlet might be extended through many pages, by extracts 
from the speeches of former opponents, now acting with the Democratic 
party, and those supporting other candidates, bearing testimony either to 
Mr. Buchanan's spotless reputation and statesmanlike ability, or else con- 
tradicting the stories in circulation against him. 

Let us take Andrew Jackson Donelson, now a candidate for the Vice- 
Preeidency, on the Fillmore ticket, and we find that, while he was editor 
of the Washington Union, on the 5th of June, 1851, he defended Mr. 
Buchanan against an attack of the organ of Mr. Fillmore's administra- 
tion, in the following language : 

"But the special organ, instead of manfully acknowledging the error 
which has been committed by its party in the countenance it has given 
to political anti-slavery organization — an error not denial nor even con- 
cealed by the President, vr any one of his cabinet ministers, in the vari- 
<>tu speccJies which tjicy have d to tJiv abolition districts of New 



9 

York — imagines that it is its office to neutralize the force of such a fact, 
by reviving the stale charge of Federalism against Mr. Buchanan, who 
is one, amongst some eight or ten of the prominent men in the Demo- 
cratic party, that may be brought before a National Convention, whose 
duty it will be to put some one of them in nomination for the Presi- 
dency. This gentleman has friends who will doubtless, in due season, 
make a more detailed vindication of his character than we have done in 
this hasty article What we have said, is not a defence of Mr. Buchanan 
as a candidate for the Presidency, but as a member of the party in 
whose service he has acquired the high respect of his fellow-citizens, and 
has proved that he possesses the eminent ability and patriotism, which 
justified the confidence given to him by the State which he so long 
represented in the Senate of the United States, and afterwards by Presi- 
dent Polk, who gave him the first place in his Cabinet." 

The Hon. Oscar P. Moore, at present a representative in Congress 
from the Ross district, Ohio, a leading member of the Opposition party, 
in a letter to his constituents, defines his position as follows : 

" With the announcement of the nomination of Fremont, as it spread 
with lightning rapidity over the land, expired the last hope that lingered 
around the Philadelphia Convention. What a fall ! Judge McLean, 
with all his age, learning and experience, his fame, his stern integrity — 
the hopes of quiet, peace, purity, safety and glory to the country, con- 
centrated in him — rejected ! And a man, whose only merit, so far as 
history records it, is in the fact, that he was born in South Carolina, 
crossed the Rocky Mountains, subsisted on frogs, lizzards, snakes and 
grasshoppers, and captured a woolly horse, chosen as the person to control 
the destinies of this great nation ! And this too, by the cool, deliberate, 
intellectual men of New England and the North ! ! But what shall we 
do ! If Judge McLean had been nominated, no one could have hesitated. 
Nor can I now hesitate to take position. As warmly and as steadily as 
I have heretofore opposed the Democratic party, and as bitterly as I 
denounced the Cincinnati Platform now, with my respect for the ability, 
age and experience of Mr. Buchanan, and with my contempt for the 
claims of Fremont, and the arrant folly — to use no harsher term — of 
those who dictated his nomination, if I were compelled this day to choose 
between them, I should vote for Mr. Buchanan." 

Thaddeus Stevens, with a full knowledge of Mr. Buchanan's position, 
(he resides in Mr. Buchanan's own county,) declared in the Philadelphia 
Black Republican Convention, that Mr. B. would carry the State of 
Pennsylvania by fifty thousand majority. He said : 

Mr. Stevens saw what the current of the Convention was — he did not 
rise to resist it — but he admonished delegates to take care it does not 
sweep away friends as well as foes. [Applause.] Pennsylvania is em- 
barrassed by the withdrawal of the only name he thought could save the 



10 

State. He would like to have time to consult his colleagues. He would 
be sorry to see Judge McLean's name introduced now; but he was assured 
that without that name, Pennsylvania would be lost by 50,000 majority 
in the Full! In conclusion, he moved to adjourn until 10 o'clock next 
morning. 

The National Intelligencer, the organ of the Fillmore opposition, at 
Washington, spoke of Mr. Buchanan's nomination, as follows : 

" Mr. Buchanan is a man of character, of stainless private life, and of 
long and varied experience in public affairs. As a gentleman, we have 
nothing to object to him, save his party politics and party career; and 
although we trust that the anti-Democratic conservative power of the 
country will be able to beat him, yet, if they should fail, they may still 
hope that his success will give to the country a President, who will prove 
a friend to the Union, and more conservative in his administration, than 
is the political platform upon which he has been placed by the Con- 
vention. " 

As a comment upon the course of some of the opposition papers, 
we may add, that before the National Democratic Convention met, 
they were very confident that Mr. Buchanan would not be nominated, 
and many of them anticipating this result, spoke of him in the 
highest terms, some saying, that if nominated, it would be vain to 
make any opposition to him. No doubt much of this grew out of a 
desire to prepare the Democracy for a state of feeling consequent upon 
the unexpected defeat of Mr. Buchanan. An evidence of this is to be 
fouud in the following paragraph, which was telegraphed to the New 
York Tribune, from Cincinnati, on the 3d of June last: 

An Early Surrender. — "If Mr. Buchanan's friends fulfil their 
confident expectations, he will be nominated before this reaches the Tri- 
bune. He will not be nominated at all except by a divided Convention, 
after Thursday night. His nomination has been generally deprecated by 
the Republicans as dangerous, if not fatal to their success." 

But probably the most complete answer to every charge against Mr. 
Buchanan, is to be found in the fact, that fiom Maine to Georgia, the most 
eminent minds heretofore opposed to the Democratic party are rallying in 
his support. Look at the list in Pennsylvania. There is Joseph H. 
Chandler, William B. Reed, Josiah Bandull, Frederick Fraley, Eli K. 
Price, and hundreds of men who have heretofore been the light and the 
staff of the old Henry Clay party. In Maryland, there are Senators 
Pearce and Pratt, Reverdy Johnson, and hundreds of men of that class. 
In Louisiana, Senator J. P. Benjamin. In Missouri, Hon. Sam. Caru- 



11 

there, and Mordecai Oliver. In Kentucky, Hon. Wm. E. Preston, and 
hosts of others. All these men with thousands at their backs agreeing 
with them, look down with ineffable contempt and scorn upon the calum- 
nies which have grown so stale and so old, that Mr. Greeley himself has 
got tired and disgusted with them, and in a late number of his Tribune, 
speaks as follows : 

" In opening the Presidential canvass of 1856 — a canvass destined to 
form a memorable epoch in our Nation's history — we would impress on 
our compatriots in the support of Fremont and Dayton, and especially 
our brethren of the Republican Press, the wisdom and sound policy of 
refraining from all personal warfare. We believe all the candidates in 
nomination for President and Yice President have sustained fair repu- 
tations in all their relations as citizens ; and, if it were possible to 
rake from the dust of oblivion some charge that would tend to the dis- 
paragement of one or another of them, we hold it unwise and improper 
to do so." 

MR. BUCHANAN AND GENERAL JACKSON.— MR. 
BUCHANAN AND MR. CLAY. 

Andrew Jackson Donelson, whose defence of Mr. Buchanan appears 
in another part of this pamphlet, has been ransacking some of General 
Jackson's private letters, to find reflections against Mr. Buchanan. A 
very brief answer only is necessary here. Two facts will go far to show 
that Mr. Buchanan bore a relation to General Jackson, such as no man 
ever maintained who did not secure the confidence of the old hero. After 
his ten years' service in the U. S. House of Representatives, Mr. B. re- 
tired to private life ; and one of the first acts of General Jackson, after 
that, was to make a voluntary tender to him of the important mission to 
Russia. The other fact is that which defies denial — that Mr. Polk ap- 
pointed Mr. Buchanan Secretary of State in his administration, after con- 
sultation with General Jackson, who was then residing at the Hermitage, 
and who recommended and approved the selection. On this latter point, 
the facts are alike ample and. conclusive. 

The following from the Washington Union, conducted by Hon. A. 
0. P. Nicholson, of Tennessee, and personally known to all the parties, 
is so full and complete on this subject, that we copy it entire : 

[From the Washington Union.] 
GEN. JACKSON. — MR. CLAY. — MR. BUCHANAN. 

The friends of General Jackson will read the paragraph below, from 
the Nashville Union, with gratification. It is high time that Andrew 
Jackson should step forward to arrest the ruthless war of ingratitude and 



12 

hyena-like malignity, which is being waged on the memory of his father. 
We trust that the son will be no longer restrained by feelings of delicacy 
from coming forward to shield the fame of his illustrious father, from the 
wicked abuse of the confidence which he reposed in such ingrates as 
Blair and Donelson. There is no lower deep of political degradation, than 
that to which the man has descended, who would take advantage of the 
speechless silence of the grave to abuse the confidence of his benefactor 
with impunity. 

We suppose the late publication of what purports to be a part of a pri- 
vate letter of General Jackson, in which he refers to the connection of 
Mr. Buchanan with the charge of "bargain and intrigue," that involved 
General Jackson and Mr. Clay in an angry controversy, has induced 
Major Jackson to express the purpose indicated in the paragraph below. 
We understand the Nashville Union to intimate that Major Donelson has 
furnished this extract to his organ in Nashville, for publication. The 
object of its publication is to exhume from the graves of Jackson and 
Clay a quarrel which was buried with their bodies, under the hope of ex- 
citing the feelings of their respective friends against Mr. Buchanan. 
We know with how much ardor and earnestness the people of Tennessee 
and Kentucky contest the ascendancy in their political conflicts ; but we 
know, too, that they are as generous, as brave, and as noble a people 
as live. We think, therefore, we risk nothing in predicting that the 
effort to revive a personal quarrel between the friends of the two men, 
whose memories are respectively dear to the two people, will cause both 
to turn with loathing and disgust from so unmanly a mode of warfare It 
was our fortune to know something personally of General Jackson's feel- 
ings and opinions in respect to public men, as also to know from actual 
observation, the relations between Mr. Clay and Mr. Buchanan. Upon 
this knowledge, we have the most perfect conviction, that whatever feel- 
ings General Jackson and Mr. Clay carried to their graves towards each 
other, they carried none towards Mr. Buchanan, but those of earnest 
friendship. Before quoting the paragraph referred to, we commend to our 
readers, as a conclusive answer to the attempt to misrepresent the relations 
subsisting between General Jackson and Mr. Clay and Mr. Buchanan, 
the following extract from a late number of the Nashville Union : 

"It is supposed that General Jackson and Mr. Clay knew more about 
this matter, and how far Mr. Buchanan was answerable, than any other 
two men that ever lived ; and that, if General Jackson and Mr. Clay could 
excuse Mr. Buchanan of any wrongful intention, and honor him with 
their confidence, no one else can have proper cause of complaint against 
him. That .Mr. Buchanan's explanation of the misunderstanding that 
had grown out of the conversation between himself and General Jackson, 
was entirely satisfactory to Mr. Clay, is a matter of history; many evi- 
dences of which could be given, but the following will suffice :" 

MR. CLAY TO MR. BROOKE. 

" Mr. Buchanan has presented his communication to the public; and 
although he evidently labors throughout the whole of it to spare and 
cover General Jacktson, he fails in every essential particular to sustain 



13 

the General. Indeed, I could not desire a stronger statement from Mr. 
Buchanan." 

Ex-Governor Letcher, the bosom friend of Mr. Clay, writing from 
Lexington, Ky., August 25, 1827, says : 

" With your letter of the 9th, Mr. Buchanan's response to the hero 
was received. This answer is well put together. As they say in Con- 
necticut, ' there is a great deal of good reading' in Buck's reply. It is 
modest and gentle, yet strong and conclusive. I am truly delighted with 
the manner in which Mr. B. has acquitted himself." 

We might also quote from Prentice's biography of Mr. Clay, written 
many years ago, in which he said that Mr. Buchanan had acquitted him- 
self in this matter like " an honorable man." But the fact that Mr. 
Clay did not censure Mr. Buchanan, after being made to understand the 
facts, is too notorious for argument. 

As to General Jackson, it is a matter interwoven with the history of 
the country — whatever scandalous betrayals of private confidence men 
may now make by parading letters shamefully perverted, and that were 
never intended to be published — that a warm and cordial intimacy and 
mutual regard and confidence existed between him and Mr. Buchanan to 
the last hour of the old hero's life. 

All these old, unpleasant difficulties, rejuvenated by the Banner, 
through the aid of Maj. Donelson, were enacted from 1825 to 1827. 
Four years afterwards, upon retiring from Congress, in 1831, Mr. Bucha- 
nan received from Gen. Jaclson, unsolicited, the high compliment and 
trust of the mission to Russia, in which capacity he rendered the country 
the important service of negotiating the first commercial treaty between 
the United States and Russia, which secured to our commerce the ports 
of the Baltic and the Black Sea. 

Mr. Polk is known to have gone to the Hermitage, upon the eve of 
his departure, for the special purpose of consulting General Jackson on 
the subject of his Cabinet. Pennsylvania, led by James Buchanan, had 
contributed her electoral vote to his election. General Jackson had 
known Mr. Buchanan intimately for twenty years. The con-equence 
was, Mr. Polk invited Mr. Buchanan to accept the portfolio of the State 
Department, the head of his Cabinet. It was in view of all these things, 
and the grave importance of the mission, that President Pierce sent him 
as Minister to England And it is for his purity of public and private 
character, as attested by the confidence of Jackson, Polk, and Pierce, and 
the large and comprehensive statesmanship which he manifested in all 
these important public stations, filled at their solicitation, that the Demo- 
cratic party have put him forward as their candidate for the Presidency. 

If Mr. Clay "could not ask a stronger statement from Mr. Buchanan," 
and respected his great public worth, as he frequently attested when they 
were both members of the United States Senate in 1841 — if General 
Jackson could so esteem him as to appoint him to an important foreign 
mission in 1831, recommend him to Mr. Polk as a Cabinet officer, and 
express regret for his defeat for the Senate as late as 1845 — is it not the 
most contemptible twaddle for men who have been treacherous themselves 
to both the old parties, led respectively by Clay and Jackson, to be raising 



14 

a hue and cry at this day, against so venerable a patriot and sage as 
James Buchanan ? This is all we have to say on this branch of the subject. 

It is in reference to the letter of Gen. Jackson, alluded to in the fore- 
going article, that the following paragraph appeared in a subsequent issue 
of the Nashville Union : 

" We were much gratified a few days since, to receive a visit, from Mr. 
Andrew Jackson, the present occupant of the Hermitage. He expressed 
himself greatly mortified at the wanton and unauthorized use which has 
recently been made of the private letters of his father, Gen. Jackson — 
letters which the unworthy possessors of, would sooner stick their heads 
in the fire than to have published, if the old hero had been living.- Mr. 
Jackson regards the use which has been made of these random letters as 
an outrage upon the memory of his revered father not longer to be sub- 
mitted to in silence, and which he can and will effectually crush if per- 
sisted in." 

MR. BUCHANAN'S OWN STATEMENT. 

The following letter from the Hon. James Buchanan, to which both Mr. 
Clay and Mr. Letcher refer, is so candid, frank, and plain a statement, that 
we publish it entire. It was after the publication of this letter, that General 
Jackson offered to Mr. Buchanan the post of Minister to Russia, and recom- 
mended his appointment as Secretary of State to President Polk : 

To the Editor of tM Lancaster Journal. 

The Cincinnati Advertiser was last night placed in my hands by a friend, 
containing an address from Gen. Jackson to the public, dated on the 18th 
ultimo, in which he announces me to be the Member of Congress to whom 
he had referred, in his letter to Mr. Beverly of the 5th of June last. _ The 
duty which I owe to the public, and to myself, now compels me to publish to 
the world, the only conversation which I ever held with Gen. Jackson, on the 
subject of the last Presidential election, prior to its termination. 

In the month of December, 1821, a short time after the commencement of 
the session of Congress, I heard, among other rumors then in circulation, 
that Gen. Jackson had determined, should he be elected President, to con- 
tinue Mr. Adams in the office of Secretary of State. Although 1 felt certain 
he had never intimated such an intention, yet 1 was sensible that nothing 
could be better calculated both to cool the ardor of his friends, and to inspire 
his enemies with confidence, than the belief that he had already selected his 
chief competitor, for the highest office within his gift. I thought General 
Jackson owed it to himself and to the pause, in which his political friends 
were engaged, to oontradict this report ; and to declare that he would 
not appoint to that office the man, however worthy lie might be, who 
stood at the head 1 of the most formidable party of his political enemies. 
These being my impressions, I addressed a letter to a confidential friend in 
Pennsylvania, 'then and Still high in offi e, and exalted in Character, and one 

who had ever been the decided advocate of General Jackson's election, re- 
questing his opinion and advice upon bhe mbject. I received his answer, 
dated the 27tb December, L824, upon the 29th, which is now before me, and 
which strengthened and confirmed my previous opinion. 

I then finally determined, either that 1 would ask General Jackson myi -'It, 
or get another of his friends to ask him— whether he had ever declared he 



15 

would appoint Mr. Adams his Secretary of State. In this manner, I hoped 
a contradiction of the report might be obtained from himself and that he 
might probably declare it was not his intention to appoint Mr. Adams. 

A short time previous to the receipt of the letter to which I have referred, 
my friend Mr. Markley and myself got into conversation, as we very often 
did, both before and after, upon the subject of the Presidential election, and 
concerning the person who would probably be selected by General Jackson, 
to fill the office of Secretary of State. I feel sincerely sorry that I am com- 
pelled thus to introduce his name ; but I do so with the less reluctance, because it 
has already, without any agency of mine, found its way into the newspapers, 
in connection with this transaction. 

Mr. Markley adverted to the rumor which I have mentioned, and said it 
war calculated to injure the General. lie observed, that Mr. Clay's friends 
were warmly attached to him, and that he thought they would endeavor to 
act in concert at the election. That if they did so, they could either elect 
Mr. Adams or General Jackson at their pleasure ; but that many of them 
would never agree to vote for the latter, if they knew he had predetermined 
to prefer another to Mr. Clay, for the first office in his gift. And that some 
of the friends of Mr. Adams had already been holuing out the idea, that in 
case he were elected, Mr. Clay might probably be offered the situation of 
Secretary of State. 

I told Mr. Markley, that I felt confident General Jackson had never said 
he would appoint Mr. Adams Secretary of State ; because he was not in the 
habit of conversing upon the subject of the election; and if he were, what- 
ever might be his secret intention, he had more prudence than to make such 
a declaration. I mentioned to him that I had been thinking, either that I 
would call upon the General myself, or get some one of his other friends to 
do so, and thus endeavored to obtain from him a contradiction of the report; 
although I doubted whether he would hold any conversation upon the 
subject. 

Mr. Markley urged me to do so ; and observed, if General Jackson had 
not determined whom he would appoint Secretary of State, and should say 
that it would not be Mr. Adams, it might be a great advantage to our cause, 
for us so to declare, upon his own authority; we should then be placed upon 
the same footing with the Adams men, and might fight them with their own 
weapons. That the western members would naturally prefer voting for a 
western man, if there were a probability that the claims of Mr. Clay to the 
second office in the Government should be fairly estimated ; and that if they 
thought proper to vote for Gen. Jackson, they could soon decide the contest 
in his favor. 

A short time after this conversation, on the 30th December, 1824, (I am 
enabled to fix the time not only from my own recollection, but from letters 
which I wrote on that day, on the day following, and on the 2d January, 1825) 
I called upon General Jackson. After the company had left him, by which 
I found him surrounded, he asked me to take a walk with him ; and whilst 
we were walking together upon the street, I introduced the subject. I told 
him, I wished to ask him a question in relation to the Presidential election ; 
that I knew he was unwilling to converse upon the subject; that therefore if 
he deemed the question improper, he might refuse to give it an answer. That 
my only motive in asking it, was friendship for him, and I trusted he would 
excuse me for thus introducing a subject, about which I knew he wished to 
be silent. 

His reply was complimentary to myself, and, accompanied with a request 
that I should proceed. I then stated to him, there was a report in circula- 
tion, that he had determined he would appoint Mr. Adams Secretary of State, 
in case he were elected President : and that I wished to ascertain from him 



16 

whether he had ever intimated such an intention. That he must at once 
perceive, how injurious to his election such a report might he. That no doubt, 
there were several able and ambitious men in the country, among whom I 
thought, Mr. Clay might be included, who were aspiring to that office ; and 
if it were believed he had already determined to appoint his chief competitor, 
it might have a most unhappy effect upon their exertions, and those of their 
friends. That unless he had so determined, I thought this report should be 
promptly contradicted under his own authority. 

I mentioned, it had already probably done him some injury, and proceeded 
to relate to him the substance of the conversation which I had held with Mr. 
Markley. I do not remember whether 1 mentioned his name, or merely 
described him as a friend of Mr. Clay. 

After I had finished, the General declared he had not the least objection to 
answer my question. That he thought well of Mr. Adams ; but had never 
said or intimated, that he would, or that he would not, appoint him Secretary 
of State. That these things were secrets he would keep to himself— he would 
conceal them from the very hairs of his head. That if he believed his right 
hand then knew what his left would do upon the subject of appointments to 
office, he would cut it off and cast it into the fire. That if he should ever be 
elected President, it would be without solicitation and without intrigue on his 
p ar t — thai he would then go into office perfectly free and untrammelled, and 
would be left at perfect liberty to fill the offices of government with the 
men whom at the time he believed to be the ablest and the best in the 
country. 

I told him that his answer to my question was such an one as I had expected 
to receive, if he answered it at all; and that I had not sought to obtain it for 
my own satisfaction. I then asked him if I were at liberty to repeat his 
answer. He said I was perfectly at liberty to do so to any person I thought 
proper. I need scarcely remark that I afterwards availed myself of the 
privilege. The conversation upon this topic here ended — and in all our in- 
tercourse since, whether personally or in the course of our correspondence, 
Gen. Jackson never once adverted to the subject, prior to the date of his letter 
to Mr. Beverly. 

I do not recollect that General Jackson told me I might repeat his answer 
to Mr. Clay and his friends ; though I should be sorry to say he did not The 
whole conversation being upon the public street, it might have escaped my 
observation. , 

A few remarks more, and I trust I shall have done with this disagreeable 
business forever. 

I called upon Gen. Jackson on the occasion which I have mentioned, solely 
as his friend, upon my individual responsibility, and not as the agent of Mr. 
Clay, or any other person. I never have been the political friend of Mr. Clay 
since he became a candidate for the office of President, as you very well 
know. Until I saw Gen. Jackson's letter to Mr. Beverly of the 5th ult., and 
at the same time was informed by letter from the Editor of the United States 
Tdcyrujiii, that 1 was the person to whom he alluded, the conception never 
once entered my mind, that he deemed me to have been the agent of Mr. Clay, 
or of his friends, or that I had intended to propose to him terms of any kind 
from them, or that he could have supposed me to be capable of expressing 
the "opinion that it was right to fight such intriguers with their own weapons." 
Such a supposition, had I entertained it, would have rendered mo exceedingly 
unhappy ; as there is no man upon earth whose good opinion 1 more value 
than that of General Jackson, lie could not, I think, have received this im- 
pression until alter Mr. Clay and his friends had actually elected Mr. Adams 
President, and Mr. Adams had appointed Mr. Clay Secretary of State. After 
these events had transpired, it may be readily conjectured, in what manner 



17 

my communication might have led him into the mistake. I deeply de- 
plore that such has been its effect. 

I owe it to my own character to make another observation. Had I ever 
known, or even suspected that Gen. Jackson believed I had been sent to him 
by Mr. Clay or his friends, I should have immediately corrected his erroneous 
impression ; and thus prevented the necessity for this most unpleasant ex- 
planation. When the Editor of the United States 'Megraph, on the 12th of 
October last, asked me by letter for information upon the subject, I promptly 
informed him by the returning mail on the 16th of that mouth, that I had no 
authority from Mr. C. or his friends, to propose any terms to Gen. Jackson 
in relation to their votes, nor did I ever make any such proposition ; and that 
I trusted I would be as incapable of becoming a messenger, upon such an 
occasion, as it was known Gen. Jackson would be to receive such a message. 
I have deemed it necessary to make this statement, in order to remove any 
misconception which may have been occasioned by the publication, in tJse 
Telegraph, of my letter to the editor, dated the 11th ultimo. 

With another remark, I shall close this communication. Before I held the 
conversation with Gen. Jackson, which I have detailed, I called upon Major 
Eaton, and requested him to ask Gen. Jackson, whether he had ever declared 
or intimated, that he would appoint Mr. Adams Secretary of State, and ex- 
pressed a desire that the General should say, if consistent with truth, that 
he did not intend to appoint him to that office. I believed that such a decla- 
ration would have a happy influence upon the election, and I endeavored to 
convince him that such would bo its effect. The conversation between us was 
not so full as that with General Jackson. The Major politely declined to 
comply with my request, and advised me to propound the question to the 
General myself, as I possessed a full share of his confidence. 

JAMES BUCHANAN. 

Lancaster, 8th Augxist, 1827. 

MR. BUCHANAN AND THE LABORING MAN. 

No public man has ever been more consistent in his defence of measures, 
in which the laboring classes have been interested, than Mr. Buchanan. 
While a Senator in Congress, he was probably the most effective advocate 
of all laws to liberalize and improve the Charter of the District of 
Columbia, particularly in his opposition to the circulation of small notes, 
that vitiated currency from which so many evils have sprung, and by 
which so many honest men and women have suffered. The explosions of 
the shin plaster shops, in the city of Washington, would never have 
occurred, had the laws for which Mr. Buchanan pleaded so earnestly in 
the Senate, been enforced. His speeches in favor of a liberal land policy, 
to enable the enterprizing poor man to settle upon the public lands, and 
be free from the clutches of those speculators, who so often take up 
millions of acres, for the purpose of coining fortunes out of the honest 
emigrant, are memorable. He was one of the earliest advocates of libe- 
ralizing the Constitution of Pennsylvania, so as to render it more popular 
in its character. In 1840, when everything seemed to be " fair in politics," 
a grand clamor was raised against Mr. Buchanan, on the ground that he 
had argued in the Senate, in his speech of 22d of January, 1840, in favor of 
2 



18 

paying the American laborer but ten cents a day. It teaches us a lesson 
now, when we see so many men (even among those who are at present 
supporting Mr. Fremont and Mr. Fillmore) coming forward and rpgretting 
and withdrawing this unjust accusation. This charge then rung from 
every stump ; thousands of men were mislead by it ; but time and reflec- 
tion have done the work, and Mr. Buchanan is vindicated. A great 
revolution has taken place since he made the admirable speech from 
which this perverted statement was wrested. When he spoke, the 
country was suffering under the effects of a contraction in the money 
market, resulting from the explosion of the Bank of the United States, 
and every branch of industry was more or less affected by the condition 
of financial affairs. The Independent Treasury was then that great bug- 
bear, -which was to withdraw all the specie from circulation, and to ruin 
everybody, high and low. It was to prove the advantage of a sound 
currency, that Mr. Buchanan spoke against that multiplication of 
paper money, from which so many evils have sprung. But the objec- 
tions to the Independent Treasury have been answered by results. Where 
is there now to be found, the man who doubts that the Independent 
Treasury has been of immense advantage to commerce and to trade ; and 
where is the mechanic, or the laboring man, who sees for himself, how 
important it is to his interest to have sound banks or gold and silver, 
who will not look back upon the attacks upon Mr. Buchanan's Indepen- 
dent Treasury speech, in 1840, with something of confusion, that he 
should have permitted himself for a moment to be deluded by the accusa- 
tions of the opposition? Mr. Greeley of the New York Tribune, again 
comes forward to make a clean breast of it. We copy from the Tribune, 
since Mr. Buchanan's nomination : 

"The charge that Mr. Buchanan has advocated a reduction of laboring 
men's wages to ten cents per day, has but a very partial support in fact. He 
certainly never made any such proposition directly, nor anything, which 
he understood to have that effect." 

Now, the editor of the Tribune should have been still more frank; he 
should have stated that no man did half so much as himself to keep alive 
sixteen years ago, the very falsehood which, at this late hour, he comes 
forward to clear his conscience of. Better late than never, however, and 
we congratulate the leading organ of the Fremont party upon the uncon- 
scious confession of its own sins, and the lesson it teaches those who are 
accustomed to believe in it. 

FRANCIS P. BLAIR ANSWERING THIS CALUMNY. 
The history of the gross and reckless misrepresentation of Mr. Buchanan's 
speech of January of 1840, has been written by Francis P. Blair, now ono 



19 

of the most active friends of Fremont. Mr. Blair, it will be recollected, was 
the editor of the Washington Globe in 1840, and at that time advocated the 
measures and the man that now encounter his extreme hostility. By de- 
grees he has become so identified with the opposition to the Democratic 
party, that he has at last become the associate of Mr. Seward and Mr. Gid- 
dings. His testimony on the subject of the misrepresentation of Mr. Bu- 
chanan's speech is patent to the present attempt of the more reckless oppo- 
nents of the Democratic party, and expose them to ridicule and scorn. We 
copy from the Globe, of March 3, 1840, the following editorial from the pen 
of Mr. Blair: 

[From the Washington Globe, March 3, 1840.] 

We publish in this evening's Globe the remarks of Mr. Buchanan in the 
Senate on Tuesday last, in relation to the misrepresentations of his speech in 
favor of the Independent Treasury bill, contained in the published speech of 
Mr. Davis, (of Mass.) against that measure. It will be perceived that the 
eharge mads was, that this gentleman had, throughout his remarks, alleged 
that Mr. Buchanan had supported the bill on the principle that it would de- 
stroy the banking system, and restore an exclusive gold and silver currency, 
and would, as a necessary consequence, check importations, suppress credit, 
and reduce the wages of labor and the value of property to one-half their 
present prices. Such objections have heretofore been those chiefly urged by 
its enemies against the measure; but, by Mr. Davis, throughout his whole 
speech, they have been put into the mouth of Mr. Buchanan as arguments in 
its favor. Every one can perceive how much political capital might be made 
by circulating throughout the country, that the unfounded objections made 
to the bill by its open enemies, were not only admitted to exist by so dis- 
tinguished a friend of the measure as Mr. Buchanan, but had been actually 
urged by him as ai'guments in its favor! 

So far from this being the fact, the speech of Mr. Buchanan — and we heard 
every word of it — not only did not contain any such arguments as had been 
attributed to him by Mr. Davis, but his arguments were all of a contrary 
character. He ridiculed the idea which had been formerly urged by the 
opponents of the bill, that "it was to devour all the banks, and establish a 
pure metallic currency for all the tranactions of all the people of the United 
States," and while he proved conclusively that it would be of inestimable 
advantage by separating the banks from the Government, he rendered it 
clear that it would not injuriously affect the banks or the business of the 
country. How Mr. Davis could have put such arguments into his mouth, as 
he has done, we are utterly at a loss to conjecture. 

A friend of Mr. Buchanan having called his attention to the published 
speech of Mr. Davis, the former brought the subject before the Senate on 
Tuesday last, in the remarks which we now publish. Mr. Buchanan 
conditionally applied the epithet "flagitious," which Mr. Davis had first 
used in his speech, to characterize the propositions which he said had beoa 
advocated by Mr. Buchanan, to the misrepresentations made by Mr. Davis, 
of Mr. Buchanan's argument. This produced some altercation; but, after 
the gentlemen had compared notes with each other, the subject seemed 
to have passed away without appearing to leave any very unpleasant feeling 
behind. On the next morning, (Wednesday,) Mr. Davis appeared in the Sen- 
ate, said his remarks on the preceding day had been misunderstood by his 
friends, and desired a further opportunity of addressing the Senate on the 
subject; this was delayed by Mr. Grundy's speech, until Friday morning, 
when Mr. Davis rose and delivered a speech, marked throughout with strong 



20 

and personally offensive expressions in regard to Mr. Buchanan's previous 
remarks, and concluded with the declaration, that "he repelled them with the 
scorn and contempt which they deserved." 

Mr. Buchanan, who is proverbially mild and courteous to his opponents, 
was left without any alternative but that of treating Mr. Davis with severity. 
He was perfectly calm and collected in his manner. He commenced with 
stating what we copy from the notes of our reporter: "That when he had 
addressed the Senate a few days ago, he had endeavored to state what he be- 
lieved to be his grievance in the mildest manner which the nature of the 
case admitted, and to treat the Senator from Massachusetts, so ' far as he 
could, with courtesy and respect. The remarks of that gentleman to-day, 
had, however, absolved him from any such obligation, and he should proceed 
to 'treat his misrepresentations as they deserved." We have never heard a 
more just and conclusive reply, or one more severe in its character. The 
Senator appeared altogether in a new light. Mr. Davis rejoined ; the alter- 
cation became quite personal on both sides, and Mr. Buchanan, in conclu- 
sion, triumphantly declared that he had fixed the charge of grossly misrepre- 
senting his remarks upon him, and there it should stick like the poisoned 
shirt of Nessus. 

We have not met any candid and impartial man who was present, who 
does not believe that Mr. Buchanan made out his case clearly and tri- 
umphantly. It would have been better, much better, for Mr. Davis, at first, 
to have admitted the misrepresentations charged, and stated that they were 
unintentional mistakes, if such were the fact. From the result of the con- 
troversy, we entertain not a doubt that he is now of the same opinion. 
When the entire debate should be published, we have no doubt this will be 
the settled conviction of our readers. 

We now come to a few extracts from the original speech, which has 
been so much misrepresented, referring those who want a full report of 
the speech, to the authentic copy, published by the Democratic National 
Committee, and to be found in the hands of most of the Democratic State 
and County Committees. We also append other extracts from Mr. 
Buchanan's subsequent speeches, exposing the misrepresentations of 
Davis : 

Amongst others who undertook to answer Mr. Buchanan's speech, was 
the Hon" John Davis, of Massachusetts — he that was usually known as 
"honest John Davis." He assumed in his argument, directly in the 
teeth of the fact, that Mr. Buchanan had advocated the Independent 
Treasury on the ground that it would establish an exclusive metallic cur- 
rency. Starting" with this erroneous assumption, he argued to show that 
it would bring down the wages of labor to the standard of prices in 
countries where the currency is exclusively metallic. To this speech, 
when published, there was an appendix, in which he introduced a table, 
showing that in some of the exclusive metallic countries of Europe labor- 
ers only received ten cents a day. Putting the speech and the appendix 
together, the hint was taken, and a clamor raised that the Democrat* 
were in favor of reducing the wages of labor to ten cents a day. 

In a subsequent speech, made on the 3d of March, 1840, Mr. Bucha- 
nan denounced the chargo against him in the strongest language, saying: 



• 21 

" Self-respect, as well as the respect which I owe to the Senate, re- 
strains me from giving such a contradiction to this allegation as it de- 
serves. It would surely not be deemed improper, however, in me. if I 
were to turn to the Senator and apply the epithet which he himself has 
applied to the proposition he imputes to me, and were to declare that 
such an imputation was a 'flagitious' misrepresentation of my remarks." 

Mr. Buchanan repeated his real position as laid down in his original 
speech, as follows : 

"In my remarks I stated distinctly what legislation would, I thought, 
be required to accomplish this purpose. In the first place, I observed 
that the banks ought to be compelled to keep in their vaults a certain 
fair proportion of specie compared with their circulation and deposits; or, 
in other words, a certain proportion of immediate specie means, to meet 
their immediate responsibilities. 2d. That the foundation of a speeic 
basis for our paper currency should be laid by prohibiting the circulation 
of bank notes, at the first under the denomination of ten, and afterwards 
under that of twenty dollars. 3d. That the amount of bank dividends 
should be limited. 4th. And, above all, that, upon the occurrence of 
another suspension, the doors of the banks should be closed at once, and 
their affairs placed in the hands of commissioners. A certainty that 
such must be the inevitable effect of another suspension would do more 
to prevent it than any other cause. To reform, and not to destroy, was 
my avowed motto. I know that the existence of banks and the circula- 
tion of bank paper are so identified with the habits of our people, that 
they cannot be abolished, even if this were desirable. 

"Such a reform in the banking system as I have indicated would 
benefit every class of society; but, above all others, the man who makes 
his living by the sweat of his brow. The object at which I aimed by 
these reforms, was not a pure metallic currency, but a currency of a 
mixed character; the paper portion of it always convertible into gold and 
silver, and subject to as little fluctuation in amount as the regular busi- 
ness of the country would admit. Of all reforms, this is what the me- 
chanic and the laboring man ought most to desire. It would produce 
steady prices and steady employment, and, under its influence, the 
country would march steadily on in its career of prosperity without suf- 
fering from the ruinous expansions and contractions and explosions, 
which we have endured during the last twenty years. What is mast 
essential to the prosperity of the mechanic and laboring man? Constant 
employment, steady and fair wages, with uniform prices for the necessa- 
ries and comforts of life which he must purchase, and payment for his 
labor in a sound currency." 

After re-stating further his arguments, as presented in his original 
speech of January 22, Mr. Buchanan said, in reference to the reduction 
of the wages of laboring men : 

"I contended that it would not injure, but greatly benefit, the laboring 
man, to prevent the violent and ruinous expansions and contractions to 
which our currency was incident, and, by judicious bank reform, to place 
it on a settled basis. If this were done, what would be the consequence? 
That, if the laboring man could not receive as great a nominal amount 



22 . 

for his labor as he did 'in the days of extravagant expansion/ which 
must always, under our present system, be of short duration, he would be 
indemnified, and far more than indemnified, by the constant employment, 
the regular wages, and the uniform and more moderate prices of the 
necessaries and comforts of life, which a more stable currency would pro- 
duce. Can this proposition be controverted ? I think not. It is too 
plain for argument. Mark me, sir, I desire to produce this happy result, 
not by establishing a pure metallic currency, but 'by reducing the amount 
of your bank issues within reasonable and safe limits, and establishing a 
metallic basis for your paper circulation.' The idea plainly expressed is, 
that it is better, much better, for the laboring man, as well as for every 
other class of society, except the speculator, that the business of the 
country should be placed upon that fixed and permanent foundation, 
which would be laid by establishing such a bank reform as would render 
it certain that bank notes should be always convertible into gold and 
silver. 

"And yet this plain and simple exposition of my views has been seized 
upon by those who desire to make political capital out of their perversion ; 
and it has been represented far and wide, that it was my desire to reduce 
wages down to the prices received by the miserable serfs and laborers of 
European despotisms. I shall most cheerfully leave the public to decide 
between me and my traducers. The Senator from Massachusetts, after 
having attributed to me the intention of reducing the wages of labor to 
the hard-money standard, through the ageney of the Independent 
Treasury bill, has added, as an appendix to his speech, a statement, made 
by the Senator from Maryland, (Mr. Merrick,) of the prices of labor in 
these hard-money despotisms; and it is thus left to be inferred that I am 
in favor of reducing the honest and independent laborer of this glorious 
and free country to the same degraded condition. The Senator ought to 
know that there is too much intelligence among the laboring classes in 
this highly favored land to be led astray by such representations." 

Mr. Clay had charged that the friends of the Independent Treasury de- 
sired to reduce the wages of laboring men. As this is the charge which 
it is now sought to revive, we invite special attention to Mr. Buchanan's 
reply. It was as follows : 

" We arc also charged by the Senator from Kentucky with a desire 
to reduce the wages of the poor man's labor. We have been often 
termed agrarians on our side of the house. It is something new under 
the sun to hear the Senator and his friends attribute to us a desire to 
elevate the wealthy manufacturer at the expense of the laboring man and the 
mechanic. From my soul I respect the laboring man. Labor is the 
foundation of the wealth of every country ; and the free laborers of the 
North deserve respect both for their probity and their intelligence. 
Heaven forbid that I should do them wrong ! Of all the countries on 
the earth, we ought to have the most consideration for the laboring man. 
From the very nature of our institutions, the wheel of fortune is con- 
stantly revolving and producing such mutations in property, that the 
wealthy man of to-day may become the poor laborer of to-morrow. Truly 
wealth often takes to itself wings and flies away. A large fortune rarely 



23 

lasts beyond the third generation, even if it it endure so long. "We must 
all know instances of individuals obliged to labor for their daily bread, 
whose grandfathers were men of fortune. The regular process of society 
would almost seem to consist of the efforts of one class to dissipate the 
fortunes which they have inherited, whilst another class, by their industry 
and economy, are regularly rising to wealth. We have all, therefore, a com- 
mon interest, as it is our common duty, to protect the rights of the labor- 
in" man; and if I believed for a moment that this bill would prove 
injurious to him, it should meet my unqualified opposition. 

"Although this bill will not have as great an influence as I could 
desire, yet, as far as it goes, it will benefit the laboring man as much, and 
probably more than any other class of society. What is it he ought most to 
desire ? Constant employment, regular wages, and uniform, reasonable prices 
for the necessaries and comforts of life which he requires. Now, sir, what 
lias been his condition under our system of expansions and contractions ? 
He has suffered more by them than any other class of society. The rate 
of his wages is fixed and known ; and they are the last to rise with the 
increasing expansion, and the first to fall when the corresponding revul- 
sion occurs. He still continues to receive his dollar per day, whilst the 
price of every article which he consumes is rapidly rising. He is 
at length made to feel that, although he nominally earns_ as much, or 
even more than he did formerly, yet, from the increased price of all the 
necessaries of life, he cannot support his family. Hence he strikes for 
higher wages, and the uneasy and excited feelings which have at different 
periods existed among the laboring classes. But the expansion at length 
reaches the exploding point, and what does the laboring man now suffer? 
He is for a season thrown out of employment altogether. Our manufac- 
tures are suspended ; our public works are stopped ; our private enter- 
prises of different kinds are abandoned; and, whilst others are able to 
weather the storm, he can scarcely procure the means of bare sub- 
sistance." 

The predictions of Mr. Buchanan have been wonderfully fulfilled. No 
reduction in wages has taken place, as a consequence of keeping the 
public money out of the banks, but a condition of things has succeeded 
to that great measure, which has assisted every branch of commerce and 
of labor. 

It will appear that not one line, or syllable, in Mr. Buchanan's speech 
of January, 1840, or any other of his speeches, can be found to justify 
the allegation that he favored the reduction of wages. The whole false 
fabric falls to the ground. 

In connection with this subject, we will here introduce an extract from 
the remarks of the Hon. C. J. Faulkner, of Va., at the Batification 
meeting held in Washington City : 

I represent in Congress a district which abounds, perhaps, to a greater 
extent than any in Virginia, in laboring men— I mean men who live by 



24 

their own toil, and by tho daily, weekly, or yearly wages of hard and 
honest labor. National workshops, machine-shops, and manufacturing 
establishments may be seen at short intervals, from the time you enter 
that district at Harper's Ferry, until you leave it, some thirty miles west 
of Cumberland. When on my way to Cincinnati, towards the close of 
last month, and when I passed the principal points where these establish- 
ments are located — Harper's Ferry, Martinsburg, and Piedmont — these 
noble sons of toil, these brawny, hard-fisted men of labor, crowded around 
the cars to express their most anxious wishes for the nomination of James 
Buchanan. " For God's sake, give us Buchanan/' was the impassioned 
cry of many of them. I dwelt upon this fact upon more than one occa- 
sion in Cincinnati. For, I thought when the popular instinct was thus 
so firmly directed, and the popular heart thus vividly aroused, it would, 
indeed, have been a most rash and dangerous experiment to have disre- 
garded it. I do not believe there is now living in this country a public 
man more deeply enthroned in the hearts of the laboring men, than James 
Buchanan. [Great applause.] It would be quite an entertaining sight 
to see one of those advocates of the bank rags of 1839 and 1840 — one of 
those champions of a false, spurious, and irredeemable paper currency — 
seek to insult the intelligence of such men as these by the cry of " Ten- 
cent Jemmy." I see that some of our leading Democratic editors 
are gravely occupied in vindicating Mr. Buchanan from this " ten- 
cent and low-wages" calumny. It is all waste time. The great mass 
of the people understand that subject far better than the Know-Nothing 
editors who publish such stuff. I have not met with a laboring man 
of ordinary intelligence in my district, who does uot understand the 
origin of this story about " low wages and ten cents," who cannot tell 
you how the lie was gotten up ; what temporary purpose it was intended 
to serve ; and how justly the whole affair deserves the scorn and contempt 
of every fair mind. They know that the very speech from which they 
pretend to derive this misrepresentation, is one of the noblest vindica- 
tions of the rights and interests of the laboring man, and as such, it shall, 
as far as I am able, find its way into the hands of every artizan and me- 
chanic in the country before November next. The laboring men of the 
country look upon the whole story as one that has passed into the sewer 
of f >rgotten calumnies, and not to be recollected, except as a scar received 
by Mr. Buchanan in his gigantic conflict with bank monopoly and bank 
corruption, or referred to as a memorial of those days when he stood up 
in the Senate house — and there were giants in those days — as the un- 
flinching advocate of the interests of honest labor against the outside 
pressure of swindlers, shavers and speculators. [Immense cheering.] 



MR. BUCHANAN AND THE NATIONAL ARMORIES. 

A mechanic of the city of Baltimore, in a letter to the editor of the 
Baltimore Argus, of the 9th of July last, reproduces another evidence of 
Mr. Buchanan's attachment to the laboring classes. We copy as follows. 
The votes of Mr. Buchanan, as a member of the Senate, were consistently 



25 

given in support of the Civil, and for the overthrow of the Military sys- 
tem, as the records of that body abundantly prove. 

In 1841, the supervision of National Armories was changed from civil 
to military, the result of which became so odious by the petty military 
orders, rules and regulations, from time to time issued by the command- 
ing officer, that indignation meetings were held, and a committee ap- 
pointed to proceed to Washington from the armory at Harper's Ferry, for 
the purpose of restoring the old civil system, which had been the govern- 
ment of the armory from its foundation by Gen. Washington. I was one 
of that committee, and we enlisted all the force in the Senate and House 
we could for the restoration of a civilian. I called upon and afterwards 
addressed the Hon. James Buchanan, of Pa., and received in reply the 
following letter : 

Senate Chamber, July 12, 1842. 

Dear Sir: — The pressure of public business has prevented me from 
acknowledging the receipt of your letter at an earlier day. I cheerfully 
espouse your cause. I am clearly of opinion that the workmen at our 
armories ought to be placed under a civil, and not military superintend- 
ance; and I sincerely regret that a majority of the Senate have thought 
differently. In what manner the question may be decided by the House, 
I cannot anticipate, yet I fear the result. 

Yours, sincerely, 

James Buchanan. 

I trust, Mr. Editor, that my fellow-workmen will not be so silly as to 
believe that Mr. Buchanan, in any shape or manner, is opposed to our 
best interests. It is wrong, it is unjust to believe otherwise than that 
he is the friend of labor and its reward. Eighteenth Ward. 



MORE EVIDENCE ON THE SUBJECT OF MR. BUCHANAN AND 
THE WAGES OF LABOR. 

In looking over an old file of the Army and Navy Chronicle, says the Bos- 
ton Daily Times, we came across the following letter, written by Mr. Bu- 
chanan, then a U. S. Senator from Pennsylvania, to the Hon. Mahlon Dicker- 
son, then Secretary of the Navy. Although written nearly twenty years ago, 
it is another of the many evidences of the sympathy of James Buchanan for 
the laboring classes. We cannot find on record anything that would show 
Mr. Buchanan's want of feeling to the colored men, whom some of our ram- 
pant Black Republicans are wont to call " men and brethren ;" nor can we 
find anything which would go to show that Mr. Buchanan, in his proverbial 
benevolence, gave preference to the negro over the men of his own color and 
blood. A constitutional democrat, and a friend of the Union, he looks upon 
the South as equal with the North, and he will sustain the rights of each 
under the Constitution. As a statesman, he regards this as a government of 
white men, and not a government of colored men. As a philosopher, he feels 
that the condition of the three millions of blacks in our Southern States, is 
incomparably better, in being well fed, well housed, well clothed, and well 
cared for, in every moral and physical detail, than any other three millions 



26 

of negroes that ever have existed, or now exist, in any part of the world. 
But read the letter of Mr. Buchanan, and the white laborers and mechanics 
of the North will perceive that his feelings are not intensified upon a race 
upon whom God has placed his mark, distinguishing them from a superior 
creation, created for a distinct purpose. 

Washington, Dec. 26, 1837. 

My Dear Sir: — Permit me to address you on a subject which has excited 
much feeling throughout the city and county of Philadelphia, and ha3 enlisted 
my warmest sympathies. 

Five hundred mechanics have been suddenly thrown out of employment in 
the Navy Yard in Philadelphia, at this inclement season of the year. Most 
of them depending on their daily labor for their daily bread, ~ou can easily 
appreciate what must be their sufferings. Their large families (as a friend 
informs me) are in a most lamentable condition, and God only knows what 
will become of them unless government gives them employment. 

Now, sir, allow me to remark, that nothing short of necessity ought to 
compel a paternal government to place such a body of mechanics, who have 
faithfully performed their duty, in such deplorable circumstances. I know 
that the feelings of your heart will respond to this sentiment. Why not, 
then, make an effort for their relief? They ask no favor, but to be permitted 
to give, in their dabor, an equivalent for bread for themselves, their wives, 
and their children. I understand there is now a frigate at the Navy Yard, 
on which they might be employed. 

Even if the department, under other circumstances, should deem it more 
advisable, for the present, to delay completion, still a mere question of a few 
months in point of time, becomes comparatively insignificant, when weighed 
in the balance against humanity and justice. Besides, unless the Navy Yard 
at Philadelphia is to be abandoned — which I trust is not contemplated by the 
department — it is of great importance to the government to prevent such a 
body of faithful and skilful mechanics from dispersing. 

I therefore appeal to you, with confidence, to grant them employment—and 
I almost envy you the power of conferring blessings upon so many indus- 
trious and meritorious citizens, without doing injury to the Government. 

I feel confident you will pardon me for requesting as early an answer to 
this communication as may be consistent with your convenience. 
Yours, very respectfully, 

JAMES BUCHANAN. 

Hon. Mahlon Dickerson, Secretary of the Navy. 

MR. BUCHANAN'S CHARACTER AT HOME. 

It is said that no man is a prophet in his own country ; but, after all, 
the good opinion of one's neighbors is a jewel above price. Mr. Bucha- 
nan has resided in the town of Lancaster forty odd years, man and boy. 
If he had been guilty of any offences against propriety, they would hays 
appeared in that long time. He has had his share of political abuse ; he 
has been a lawyer of great prominence ; but throughout, no man has ever 
been found to question his integrity, or to insinuate a whisper against his 
reputation in public or private life. He has been a model of upright- 
ness, quiet dignity and gentle deportment, scorning the arts of the dema- 
gogue, and discharging all his duties to his fellow-citizens conscientiously. 
Mr. Buchanan's fortune, which is not very large, has been the result of 



27 

hard study, persevering toil, and fair dealing in his profession. He has 
always given freely in works of charity, and has shown much public 
spirit. In his own family, his kindness, his gentleness, and his hospi- 
tality, are proverbial. The memoir written and published by the Demo- 
cratic State Central Committee, makes the following allusion to Mr. 
Buchanan "at home." 

At this day, after more than half a century's intercourse as man and 
boy with the people of his own immediate district, and with the people of 
Pennsylvania ; after having figured prominently in the conflicts of par- 
ties ; after having shared the confidence of successive Democratic admin- 
istrations ; after having contributed hi3 energies to the overthrow of po- 
litical heresies without number, he might leave his case to thousands and 
tens of thousands, who have at various times antagonized his opinions, 
but now, with the annals of his life before them, stand ready to pay then- 
tribute to his consistency and to his integrity as a public man, by uniting 
with his political friends in placing him in the Presidential chair ! What 
nobler monument could be raised iu commemoration or any American 
patriot ? What more significant refutation of all the accusations of 
heated party combatants ? What more conclusive proof could be given 
to the nation at large, of the fitness and the merits of a statesman who, 
after such a lifetime, finds his endorsers in the hearts of the people among 
whom he has lived, and his warmest supporters among men who have for 
more than forty years stood in opposition to his opinions ? 

Let a stranger go to Lancaster now, and he will be surprised to find 
that hundreds of the leading Whigs of that old county are enrolled 
among the supporters of James Buchanan — are his active friends, and 
deem it a pleasing duty, a duty to their State and their country, to sup- 
port their distinguished fellow-citizen. The old Germans, whom he has 
defended at the bar, come forward to give their suffrages to the honest 
and conscientious lawyer j and hundreds whom he served during his Con- 
gressional career, are eager to render him their support. The young 
men are enthusiastically at his side ; and the public press, with a single 
infamous exception, ha3 been glad to bear voluntary testimony to his 
virtues, his abilities and his deservings. 

Two or three instances of Mr. Buchanan'^ benevolence may as well 
appear in this connection : 

[From the Pittsburg Post.] 
BUCHANAN AND PITTSBURG. 

On the 10th of April, 1845, a large portion of Pittsburg was laid in 
ashes by the great fire. There was no telegraph to Pittsburg in those 
days, and the news of our calamity could only reach Washington by. the 



28 

14th of April. Mr. Buchanan was then Secretary of State. On that 
day the following document left Washington for Pittsburg, addressed by 
Mr. Buchanan to Wm J. Howard, then mayor of our city. Comment is 
unnecessary, even to those maligners who would represent Mr. Buchanan 
as cold and selfish : 

$500.] Washington, April 14, 1845. 

Cashier of the Bank of Metropolis : Pay to the order of W. J. Howard, 
mayor of the city of Pittsburg, for the use of the sufferers by the late 
fire, five hundred dollars. James Buchanan. 

Dear Sir: — Will you please to accept and apply the above towards 
the relief of the sufferers in the late dreadful calamity. My feelings 
of sympathy and compassion have never been so strongly excited upon 
any similar occasion. But let the people be of good cheer, and exert 
their accustomed energy, and, under the blessings of Providence, all will 
yet be well, and Pittsburg will arise more glorious than ever from its 
ashes. * JAMES BUCHANAN. • 

W. J. Howard, Esq. 

WHAT HIS NEIGHBORS SAY OF HIM. 

It is no matter of trifling consideration and importance that those who 
know a man best should eulogise him most. More especially is praise to 
be valued when it is extorted from a political opponent. The Lancaster 
(Pennsylvania) Express, a Know-Nothing Republican paper, published 
in the immediate neighborhood of Mr. Buchanan's residence, is com- 
pelled to bear testimony to his unbending integrity and blameless life. 
After a few introductory remarks, the editor proceeds, and says : 

"We know the man as one of our most respected fellow-citizens; a 
gentleman of unblemished personal integrity and unusually agreeable 
manners in his social intercourse with all classes. We know him as the 
friend of the poor, as a perpetual benefactor of the poor widows of 
this city, who, when the piercing blasts of each successive winter 
brought shrieks of cold, and hunger, and want, in the frail tenements of 
poverty, could apply to the 'Buchanan Relief Donation' for their annnal 
supply of wood, and sitting down with their orphaned children in the 
cheerful warmth of a blazing fire, lift their hearts in silent gratitude to 
God, and teach their little ones to bless the name of James Buchanan. 
As a citizen, a neighbor, a friend, in a word, as simply James Buchanan, 
we yield to no man in the measure of our respect and esteem ; and were 
he still before us as simply James Buchanan, as he was a few years, and 
he and we occupied the same broad Jeffersonian republican platform, 
when at least one of the editors of this paper voted with him year after 
year the same Democratic ticket, then ours would be the more pleasing 
duty of supporting instead of opposing the election of our esteemed 



29 

fellow-citizen and neighbor to the highest office in the gift of the 
American people, and the highest position of political distinction in the 
world/' 

A STRIKING TRAIT IN MR. BUCHANAN'S CHARACTER. 

In his long intercourse with public men, why is it that Mr. Buchanan, 
whom his opponents now call "a cold-hearted man," can point to such 
an army of enthusiastic and devoted friends ? He has them not only at 
home, but in every State in the Union. He finds them not merely in 
the higher walks of public life, but in every class and station of society. 
"While a member of the House of Representatives and of the Senate, a 
period something over twenty years, he made friends who adhered to him 
through life, many of whom are still living. While in the Cabinet of 
President Polk, he was a favorite of his associates, without exception. 
He can recall, with pleasure, his companionship with Lewis F. Linn, of 
Missouri, and with Ambrose H. Sevier, of Arkansas, gallant spirits, now 
gathered to their fathers. He was the friend of Levi W r oodbury, the 
companion of Wm. R. King, of Roane, of Silas Wright, of John C 
Calhoun, of Felix Grundy, and of all that sterling race of men who 
adorned the era in which he was an actor. At the present moment Ban- 
croft, the historian, William L. Marcy, Robert J. Walker, Nathan Clif- 
ford, Isaac Toucey, John Y. Mason, and Cave Johnson, his associates 
during the memorable administration of Mr. Polk, are all advocating his 
election, and nearly all ardently preferred him before all others as a can- 
didate for the Presidency. 

It cannot be a cold-hearted man who can retain such men at his side 
through so many years. It proves fidelity to his friends, truth in his 
dealings with them, and a readiness at all times to respond to a generous 
action. 

The following is from the pen of a very distinguished old line Whig in 
Philadelphia : 

MR." BUCHANAN AND THE OSTEND MANIFESTO. 

The self-styled neutral press — of that class who are loud in vaunting their 
perfect independence of politics — of which the "Evening Bulletin" is a malig- 
nant type, are busy and constant in their efforts to misrepresent the purport 
of this celebrated paper. I am a Whig — a Whig of the Clay, Webster and 
Sergeant school. I was a Whig when what is now Black Republicanism was 
fanatical abolitionism — resisted as ably and strenuously by our great leaders 
as it was by the Democratic party. I am a Whig still, and think I stand on 
the same platform with reference to the only issues before the country that 
Clay and Webster stood. They were opposed to Sectionalism, to abolition- 
ism — so am I. And were they alive, I doubt not they would cast their vote 



80 

i 

as I intend to vote in November next — for James Buchanan. I shall vote for 
him, because he is the only candidate who represents fully the principle with 
reference to the slavery question, that I think vital to the safety of the coun- 
try, and the permanence of the union of the States ; because he represents 
the only party that is national in its character, and has positive and govern- 
ing strength in every section of the confederacy, North, South, East and 
West. I shall vote for him because the platform of the party which has 
nominated him, proposes to remove the Slavery agitation from the halls of 
Congress entirely, where it has always been, and always will be, a cause of 
discord and strife, and to let the people of the Territories or States decide for 
themselves the character of their domestic institutions. I shall vote for him. 
because he is a statesman of enlarged experience, conservative in his charac- 
ter, and who, apart from the impregnable position occupied by himself and 
his party on the Slavery question, upon which the Union depends, is emi- 
nently qualified to conduct the affairs, both foreign and domestic, of Govern- 
ment, with honor in these difficult times. I shall vote for him, because I 
think his position with reference to Cuba, as laid down in the " Ostend 
Manifesto," eminently wise and sound, and if understood properly, will meet 
with a hearty response from every true American citizen. It is fortunate for 
Mr. Buchanan that his real position on the Cuban question is susceptible of 
an elucidation so clear and certain, that no apology for misconstruction or 
misrepresentation can exist. The "Ostend Manifesto" itself furnishes a 
triumphant answer to the charge so flippantly made, " that Mr. Buchanan 
does not hesitate to say that we must have Cuba at all risks. If Spain refuses 
to sell, then take it (Cuba) by force!" I undertake to prove from the paper 
itself, that no such doctrine or sentiments are entertained or found in it. The 
argument of the Ostend paper is clear, concise, and to the point — that we 
should not acquire Cuba without the consent of Spain, unless justified by 

THE GREAT LAW OF SELF-PRESERVATIOX. 

The Ostend document holds this language : 

" It must be clear to every reflecting mind that, from the peculiarity pi it-" 
geographical position and the considerations attendant on it, Cuba is as 
necessary to the North American republic as any of its present members, and 
that it belongs naturally to that great family of States of which the Union is 
the providential nursery. 

" From its locality it commands the mouth of the Mississippi, and the im- 
mense and annually increasing trade, which must seek this avenue to the 
ocean. 

" On the numerous navigable streams, measuring an aggregate course of 
some thirty thousand miles, which disembogue themselves through this mag- 
nificent river into the Gulf of Mexico, the increase of the population, within 
the last ten years, amounts to more than that of the entire Union at the time 
Louisiana was annexed to it. 

" The natural and main outlet to the products of this entire population, the 
highway of their direct intercourse with the Atlantic and the Pacific States, 
can never be secure, but must ever be endangered, whilst Cuba is a depen- 
dency of a distant power, in whose possession it has proved to be a source of 
constant annoyance and embarrassment to their interests. 

"Indeed, the Union can never enjoy repose, nor possess reliable security, 
as long as Cuba is not embraced within its boundaries. 

" After we shall have offered Spain a price for Cuba far beyond its present 
value, and this shall have been refused, it will then be time to consider the 
question : Does Cuba in the possession of Spain seriously endanger our inter- 
nal peace and the existence of our cherished Union? 

" S!i oiiU this question be answered in the affirmative, then by every law> 
buman and divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from Spain, if we pos 



81 

Bess the power — and this upon the very same principle that would justify an 
individual in tearing down the burning house of his neighbor, if there were 
no other means of preventing the flames from destroying his own home. 

" Under such circumstances, we ought neither to count the cost nor regard 
the odds which Spain might enlist against us. We forbear to enter into the 
question whether the present condition of the island would justify such a 
measure. 

" Our past history forbids that we should acquire the island of Cuba with- 
out the consent of Spain, unless justified by the great law of self-preservation. 
We must, in any event, preserve our own conseious rectitude and our own 
self-respect. 

"But if Spain, deaf to the voice of her own interest, and actuated by 
stubborn pride and a false sense of honor, should refuse to sell Cuba to the 
United States, then the question will arise, what ought to be the course of 
the American government under such circumstances. 

" Self-preservation is the first law of nature, with States as well as with in- 
dividuals. All nations have at different periods acted upon this maxim. Al- 
though it has been made the pretext for committing flagrant injustice, as in 
the partition of Poland, and other similar cases which history records, yet 
the principle itself, though often abused, has always been recognised." 

Mr. Buchanan's position is, that if Spain refuses to sell, then (not that our 
government shall take it by force) will be the time to consider the question: 
Does Cuba, in the possession of Spain, seriously endanger our internal peace 
and the existence of our cherished Union ? 

Let us be specific on this matter. Mr. Buchanan lays down the great 
law of self preservation as applicable to States as well as individuals. Will 
any one dispute the truth of that position ? He says that, as important as 
Cuba is to our peace and prosperity, we should not think of acquiring it 
without the consent of Spain, except in the last resort, as a means of saving 
our own nation from ruin. Will any one venture to take issue with him on 
this position? He says that, before considering the question whether the 
acquisition of Cuba is essential for ®ur preservation, we should offer to buy 
the island, and even to offer more than its value. Will anybody come for- 
ward to dispute this position ? He says that if Spain refuses to sell at such 
price, it will then be time for our government to consider the momentous 
question whether Cuba is essential to our self-preservation ; and if it shall be 
decided in the affirmative, then, to save ourselves from ruin, we should take 
Cuba at any cost or peril. Who can successfully gainsay this proposition ? 
Who will say that "an individual would not be justified in tearing down the 
burning house of his neighbor, if that were the only means of saving his own 
home V 

I have no fears that the people, the sound conservative, right-thinking, 
right-minded people, will be misled by the misrepresentations of partizan 
zealots ; in this age of steam-presses, no public man of the country has per- 
haps so little to fear from a dispassionate examination of his record — which 
can be found on almost every page of our history for the last thirty years. 

Nominated by his party for the highest office in the world, without any 
seeking either by word or deed from him — thousands and thousands of his 
old political opponents are flocking to his standard, as the only means of 
saving the institutions of the country from civil discord and strife. His elec- 
tion in November next is certain. 

The men and the papers now engaged in misrepresenting the Ostend 
Manifesto, and especially those who think it will arouse the animosity of 
Spain, should know that the manifesto, when received in Spain, so far from 



32 

being hurtful, was succeeded by a state of feeling among the Spanish gtates- 
men, of the -most satisfactory character. Its reasoning and conclusions are 
such as no upright man, especially no American, could then, or can now, 
conscientiously resist or refute. 

MR. CLAY SPEAKS— HEAR HIM ! 

We find in the Lexington Observer and Reporter, a letter copied from the Kentucky Statesman, 
which we publish with great satisfaction. It is from James B. Clay, a son of Ilenry Clay, the great 
American Statesman, whom all men delight to honor. 

This letter is the best refutation that could be made of the stale slanders now attempted to be 
revived by a venal partizan press, relative to the unfounded charges against Mr. Buchanan — charges 
denied by Henry Clay himself, by his biographer, and now by the public generally. The high per- 
sonal regard whicL these distinguished statesmen ever entertained for each other, also effectually 
disproves these malicious fabrications. 

Mr. Clay, in announcing his determination to vote for Mr. Buchanan, assumes a position which 
Is alike honorable to himself and the powerful party of which his honored father was the ac- 
knowledged leader. 

[From the Kentucky Statesman.] 
Mr. Editor : — I desire, through your courtesy, to correct a statement made in the Statesman of 
the 4th inst., which does great injustice to two of my friends, and political brothers, the Hon. 
Joshua P. Bell, of Boyle, and the Hon. William B. Kinkead, of Kenton, and which moreover is 
untrue. The article to which I refer, states " that resolutions expressing the confidence of th« 
Whigs of Kentucky in Mr. Fillmore, and saying he was worthy of their support as in 1848," were 
rejected by the votes-of sixteen counties to one, in the State Convention held at Louisville, on the 
Ud List, and thai Mr. Iidl and Kinkead advocated them. 

It is undeniably true that such resolutions were offered in the Convention by Col. Hopkins, of 
Henderson, and it is also true that they were laid upon the table by a vote of sixteen counties to 
one. But it is not true that either Mr. Bell or Mr. Kinkead voted for them; on the contrary, both 
gentlemen opposed them, as I have reason to believe they would have done, resolutions to endorse 
any one but a true old line Whig for the office of President. It was, also, at the express desire and 
i of Mr. Kinkead that Mr. Adams withdrew his motion, to th9 effect "that the Whigs of Ken- 
tucky have undiminished confidence in Millard Fillmore." It is, however, but candid to say, that 
every member of the Convention understood that Mr. Bell and Judge Kinkead preferred Mr. Fill- 
more t<> either Mr. Buchanan or Mr. Fremont ; neither of them made any attempt to do so gross and 
unjust a thing, as to commit an old line Whig Convention to the endorsement of anybody but a 
Whir. 

There is also a statement copied into the Observer and Reporter of the 5th inst., "that I had been 
heard to say. that I was not for Buchanan." I may have said that Mr. Buchanan was not my candi- 
date, or was not my choice for the Presidency ; but I have not said that I should not vote for him. 
I prefer Mr. Fillmore personally, and if ho stood on the same principles he did in 1850, I would vote 
for him in preference to any man I know. But I expect to cast my vote for that candidate who, in 
my opinion, may have the best chance to defeat the candidate of the Black Republican party: and, 
at present advised, I think Mr. Buchanan has the best chance to do so. I wish it, nevertheless, to 
h distinctly understood, that if I shall think it my duty to vote for Mr. Buchanan, I shall vote as 
an old lin." M 'hi i. making a choice of what he believes to be evils, for the good of the country; and 
that whenever the Whig standard Shall again be raised, adhering always to the principles which I 
been instrumental in asserting at Lexington, and at Louisville on the 3d July, I shall be 
ready, fairly, honestly and fearlessly to battle against those principles and practices of the Demo- 
■ mi.' party which conflict with our own views. 

I rare, Mr. Editor, that your readers will not do me the injustice to attribute to me too great 

a desire to force myself before their notice, in venturing to corrrect misrepresentations affecting my 

frien l however well 1 may know the little importance that may bo attached to any 

i hope the Observer and Reporter will also do me the favor, as well as justice, to 

eopj n, let( r. I am sir, respectfully, Ac., 

Your obedient servant, 

JAMES B. CLAY. 
dthUmd, July B, i«5Q. 



WHERE ARE BENRY CLAY'S FAMILY AND FRIENDS? 

Ail <-t Mr. Clay's Immediate family, with a single exception, arc in the same position xs the gen 

1 to, and some are openly out for Buchanan. The sons of the old Henry 

pant, of Philadelphia, an out for Buchanan, and in the Senate, Henry 

OUy TfTil i umin,ol La.,Pratt,of Md., Peoroe, of Md., and J. C. Jones, of Tcnn., have 

taken open Rround In favor of IHichauan's election. 






L1BRA RY OF CONGRESS 




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